Cardinals Voted Most Insufferable Fans In Baseball

St. Louis Cardinals fans – enduring a month of voting by readers of Ball Eight – were chosen as the “Most Insufferable Fans” in baseball. After easily advancing to the finals, Cardinals fans dismantled Yankees fans 77 percent to 23 percent – a bigger margin of victory even than the semifinals against Braves fans.

In the third place matchup, the Red Sox fans easily defeated the Braves fans 69 percent to 31 percent.

Based on the voting, here is a full ranking of MLB fans from most insufferable to least insufferable, based on the votes recorded over the last month:

How could anybody not vote Atlanta with the honor of being the worst baseball fans in the country with their lame-ass thomahawk chop along with the wizard of oz flying monkey’s marching song? And one o f their biggest fans is Hanoi Jane.

After reading through all these comments I have to say that not one person who wrote they were a cardinal fan denounced another team…do u think the same would be said if ur home team was voted #1? Keepin it classy stl 🙂

Cardinals fans are singlehandedly the most arrogant just out of success. They feel they are the best team in the history of mlb but also think they are some ubderdog. Fans like that of the mets, pirates, blue jays. Those are real fans. Seeing the worst of the worst. Toronto just got their first playoof birth since the 90s. The pirates only a few years ago crawled above .500 staying fans for those teams are true fans. Cardinals may not have endless world series, but they have always had success. But for some reason cardinals fans feel they have faced the worst of it all. But don’t fray from bashing other teams like those I listed.

What you have to keep in mind is that we in Cardinal Nation don’t refer to ourselves as the best fans in baseball. It’s the VISITING PLAYERS who call us that. Why is that? Read Karol Wilcox’s comment and you’ll understand why they feel that way.

Jim leyland when he was a manager of the pirates in 1992 said. and its been said by ppl outside st.louis multiple other times. Cardinals fans didn’t even start that i have been to games everywhere when i was little and the cincinati reds where in town and ken griffey jr hit 500 got a standing o in stl and that kinda thing happens all the time for cards players as well as visiting players that is what makes cards fans different. I don’t like to rub it in on other teams. but i do think alot of the hate is because the cards have lately been to the playoffs 9 times winning 7 nl central titles!

I’m a Dodgers season ticket holder and never miss the series when they play the Cards, great games, great times and the fans are terrific. Notice the teams at the top – all WINNING Franchises, notice the teams at the BOTTOM, losing franchises. Win and the haters are there, lose and nobody gives a rats ass.

First: it’s “case IN point”, not and!
Second: St. Louis Cardinals fans are loyal to their team, and the Cardinal players love that loyalty!
Third: Cardinal fans are there through the good times, which is obvious, with millions attending games at Busch Stadium II annually. This stadium is smaller than Busch Stadium I by about 20,000 seats, but attendance keeps rising per year!
Finally: I am a died-in-the-wool Cardinal fan, and I believe we are the best fans in baseball. We love the team, and the majority show it in appropriate ways. There will always be fans who drink too much and become obnoxious, but I’ve seen times when other Cardinal fans have taken that type of fan to task, to the point of having ushers and security remove the person or group of persons.

While I find this article interesting, it said it was voted on by Ball 8 readers. I personally had never even heard of Ball 8 before this article. I’m interested to see what it would turn out to be if it was opened up to a larger group. Like if ESPN did the poll or someone like that. No disrespect to Ball 8. Either way GO CARDS!

Cardinal fans are so into their team mostly because they have no NBA alternative, and a one-foot-in-the-door P.O.S. NFL franchise. The Blues are great, but really being a St. Louis Cardinals fan is a year-round thing. Any amount of “ugh, so insufferable” is because most people just aren’t as big into baseball, simply because there’s a Super Bowl to watch, or the NBA playoffs. The NFL is still the most popular sport almost anywhere but in MO.

I would rather watch women’s table tennis than the NBA. At least they give 100% effort in a regular season game. It’s far and away the worst league in sports. Even worse because ESPN’s coverage is just godawful – I actually watched them interview LeBron’s yoga instructor for ten minutes. Not having an NBA team is not a bad thing.

This site is a WordPress blog (i.e… doesn’t have enough money to build a real website) and was created on December 8, 2014. It’s been active for barely over a month but they ran this extensive formal poll to discover who the most insufferable fans are? Right. (That’s embarrassing.)

Yep, Stephanie, the site is brand new (have to start somewhere and sometime!).

It is an outgrowth of our previous site (tootblan.tumblr.com), which we found too constricting for a broader baseball site.

As far as money, we appreciate your concern, but we’re doing just fine. Some day we may navigate to a site that allows ads, but for now we’re not doing it for money. We’re doing it just because we love baseball – just like the Best Fans In Baseball!

Hey, I wouldn’t hate if you weren’t trying to pass yourself off as a credible baseball source. And as for the former tumblr site, that just looks worse for your credibility (seeing as how it’s mostly used by bored housewives and teenage girls). I’m sure most of your readership is based somewhere in the NL Central and that’s where the 300ish votes came from. You should know that all things considered, you sound more like a bitter fan trying to get a few website hits than a credible baseball guy. (And the follow-up piece is even worse.)

Seriously, best of luck to you… this isn’t an easy path and I wish everyone success in doing what they love. I just hope you find your way with real stories instead of garbage like this.

I was privileged enough, as a Cardinals fan, to witness Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees play twice at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MO. From my experience there I can say that Cardinals fans were super nice to fans of the opposing team. As a matter of fact, I was in the first row right center field where a huge group of Cardinals fans was helping chant for a young Yankees fan who wanted to get an autograph from Yankees Center Fielder Jacoby Ellsbury. I witnessed nothing but comaradery between the fans at both games I attended. Insufferable? Really?!?!?
I can see someone being labeled as that if all we were being judged by was the few drunken fans (who by the way are found in every stadium at any given time) who obviously will cross the line and make us all look bad, but doing so isn’t a fair assessment of any fan base.
All this being said, lets hope for a fun and safe 2015 season. One proud St. Louis Cardinals fan.

Seriously Dunkers???? I know no one that is a Cardinal fan that doesn’t also root for the Royals. We are lucky in Missouri to have both a National League and an American League team to root for! I have never witnessed Cardinal fans being rude or obnoxius, and I have gone to many games, including the Cardinal/Royals games the past 4-5 years. You guys made it to the World Series this year…so cheer up! Cardinal fans were happy for the Royals and cheered for them!

Not true. I’ve attended games nation-wide for over 50 years. We were taught to be sportsmanlike (hence, Sportsman’s Park), keep a score card, never boo anyone but a dirty player or a bad call by an ump. Ask major leaguers where they like to play when on the road and most will say St. Louis. The players nicknamed it Baseball Heaven. BTW, we only get grief from losing teams fans. I’m a 4th generation fan. My daughters are 5th generation and have yet to visit Busch Stadium. We live amongst the Brewers and wear our Cardinals-girls gear with pride, love and respect!

I’ve been a baseball fan (and a Cardinals’ fan) for 60 years, so this is from the long range view: It has little to do with winning post season games; it’s all about class. It’s about the KMOX radio, a midwest station whose signal reached Texas. The fan base exploded long before Atlanta created a superstation. It was the MLB team the farthest West until the Dodgers left Brooklyn

In the 50’s the Cardinals were pretty mundane, but we had Stan Musial, a class act, who treated the fans with respect. The second player in history to break the $100,000 annual salary barrier and no one resented him for it but applauded him.

The 60’s were similarly slow but with Ken Boyer and entertaining players, who, again, treated the fans with respect. With Bob Gibson becoming the dominant pitcher of the decade (MLB did in fact raise the pitcher’s mound for the sole reason that he had an E.R.A. under 2.0), the Cardinals began to win, but weren’t a particular dynasty. Yet the fans kept coming.

Class: A certain budding First Basement who seemed to be the future was traded when it was learned he was using or perhaps dealing. Again, class first, winning second.

The 70s slowed down a lot but there were players that tried and had talent. And the radio broadcasters and newspaper reporters kept teaching.

In 1981, I became a season ticket holder and the talent level hit the roof the next year; Whitey Herzog redesigned a mundane team into a team designed for speed; traded a Gary Templeton who, with a total lack of class gave the finger to the fans, and stole Ozzie Smith from the Padres. In 1982 I stood in row 15 with my wife and little boys and watched the fireworks when they won the 7th game of the World Series. Yes our catcher was a recovering alcoholic but he didnt let it drag down the team and his name didnt appear in paper next to some lurid headline. In fact, I dont recall any Cardinal player like that. I’m probably wrong. Mark McGuire was in fact using banned substances I think; And the fans went crazy to see his home runs; So we were fooled; Makes us insufferable?

In those four decades, baseball fans in St. Louis and who picked up the KMOX signal and traveled here for games, learned to watch baseball, not just baseball players who thought they were more important than the team.

We had excellent broadcasters on radio and TV who actually explained what was happening, what had happened, and what was about to happen instead of talking about their fishing trips and people they hung out with. Harry Caray in the 50’s and 60’s and Jack Buck followed. O.K., maybe Harry was run out of town for having an alleged affair with the owner’s wife, but you didnt read about it.

Jack Buck was the constant M.C. of many a charity events and Cardinals showed up and mingled with the fans; and talked baseball.

So gradually we learned about the fine points of the game.

And this is not Cardinal Nation – its every MLB team that attracts fans to their park. There is Dodger Nation, and Yankee Nation for example. (By the way I’ve never heard anyone from Missouri use the term Cardinal Nation- its pretentious and presumptious. It’s like calling YOURSELF the best fan in baseball.) We have heard that from vising team players and visiting broadcasters, etc and, while it’s flattering, it’s not true of the fan base as a whole. There are certainly a lot of fans who are more knowledgeable than fans of cities where attendance is a lot lower. Ask Tommy LaSorda what he thinks of Cardinal fans; nothing but respect. Although he may use more colorful language – incidentally he also claims St. Louis has the best Italian restaurants in the country: we don’t; he does.

Look at attendance records. L.A., a huge city next to the St. Louis area, is one of the very few with consistently larger (not by much) annual attendance that the Cardinals. The difference is that Cardinal fans show up half an hour before the game or right at game time and only some leave before the 9th inning unless the score is out of reach. . My experience in LA., and what I hear from L.A. friends, is that Dodger fans in large numbers show up on the bottom of the second, or in the 3rd inning, and leave by the 8th or 7th.

Why is that: it is NOT because Dodger fans are not baseball fans. It is because there are a lot of other attractions in the L.A. area and of course the traffic is horrific. But if you dont see the first pitch and the last, you will not appreciate the game as much.

And yes, something has happened with the talent pool here. The Cardinals have dedicated themselves to a concrete minor league system and try to avoid the free agent market that drains dollars and the ability to sign good young players. And refuse to give out of the box salaries (see Pujols) and mortgage the future. Ask the new owner of the Cubs how he is going to change the culture there – by putting his money back into the minor league development, like the Cardinal model.

And, yes the Cardinals have established an incredible winning tradition in the last two decades. I used to hate the Yankees since they always won. I get it;

But the bottom line is the use of the word “insufferable.” Definition: inability to tolerate? So the world can’t tolerate Cardinal fans? What did WE do? We applaud the other teams and players. I was one to give Willie Stargell, Tony Gwynn, Mickey Mantle, et al, standing ovations when they came through town. When an opposing player makes a great catch and robs our guy of a hit or home run, yes I clap politely when he comes in after the inning. And that’s common here. When the Cubs fans come into town for great rivalry games, do our fans dump beer on them?. No, they are greeted with ribbing of course, but also friendliness.

Incidentally that’s how I was treated by Cubs fans at Wrigley field when I’ve been to their games. It’s called mutual respect.

While Cardinal fans are respectful of the game, perhaps those who suffer just resent a winning team. Yet, ever see a Cardinal player do something to show up another team? point in their dugout after a hit or homerun? Not;

So, while it’s flattering to be considered the best fans in baseball, there are some best fans in every city; Their teams may not treat them well, or maybe dont win as often, or maybe dont respect the game, so the fans “as a whole” are not “best fans” as a group.

Big deal; add St. Louis to a future trip during the baseball season and wear your own teams’ hat or jersey and experience what we see for yourself. As Yogi or some other wizard put it, it ain’t braggin if it’s true – and we aren’t even talking about it let alone bragging.

Nice job, Lenny. So, if Houston is last in this “poll,” does that mean they are the “nicest” fans in baseball? Or the “least” insufferable? Don’t quite get the relationship here. Plus, what is the criteria for insufferable, anyway?

Fans don’t dislike fans of other teams because they have won. Fans dislike fans of other teams because they win A LOT. It’s mostly a jealousy thing because if their team were successful year after year, they’d be doing the exact same stuff Cardinals fans are doing. They’d be pumped with pride and not afraid to put that pride on display. Anyone who says Cardinal fans are annoying is a hypocrite, because they’d be just as annoying if their team had the same success year after year.

There is nothing wrong with anything the Cardinals fans do. Sure, they tout themselves as “The best fans in baseball”, but to their credit, they always show up…they do applaud good plays by the other team…they are generally respectful to other team’s fans…and a Cardinal game is a really great atmosphere. And all of that stems from winning baseball.

Polls of players are always very complimentary of Cardinals fans. So that says something when opposing players notice the type of fans Cardinals fans are. Being great baseball fans isn’t something Cardinal fans just made up. It’s something that has been noticed over time and now has pretty much turned into a Marketing slogan for them.

These lists about the most annoying fans are ridiculous. Any time any fan of a losing team sees Cardinal fans going crazy year after year after year after year while their team struggles, they are going to start to hate Cardinals fans. It’s just natural. Not because they are doing anything wrong or annoying, but because they are just tired of seeing it, and they begin to be hated.

I would say the fans with the real “issues” aren’t the Cardinal fans. The fans with the real issues are the fans that are voting for teams that are the most annoying.

You can say “case and point” as much as you want, but what I said is 100% true.

For any of you who replied “case in point” your reply means absolute nothing. You did not make a case or a point explaining yourself. You comment is meaningless. I am a proud Cardinals fan. Proud of my team, proud of other Cardinals fans and proud that I am a good fan to other teams. All teams have bad fans. To have a “poll” like this is rather ridiculous because you could run something like this once a week and the results would change all of the time. People are fickle, their ideas and choices about something like this change according to who is winning, the persons mood, how their own team is doing, if they have enjoyed games they went to, their overall experience of each game. Everything can change someone’s opinion so I have to take this poll and other one’s like it with a grain of salt. I am not trying to be disrespectful of your work here but I just don’t agree with the premise of the poll.

Len Komen makes an excellent rebuttal to this pretentious poll run by a butthurt Reds fan who probably runs Cueto’s fan club and fervently denies Votto’s homosexuality rumors on these kinds of sites everywhere. The results of this poll bear a striking resemblance to the recent and sustained success of the best clubs in the MLB over the past 10 and 20 years, respectively. Note Atlanta and Yankees for success in the 90s-00s, with intermittent playoff runs since–in addition to the cards and red sox who have had more recent success. Red Sox fans are like east-coast a**hole versions of cards fans, seeing as they are similarly devoted but less informed and respectful. Yankees fans are guys who spend money on phone games, and Braves fans are generally good ole country boys who have grandpas who are cards fans. Cubs fans are generally non-conformists (unless from the immediate chicago area, where they just become baseball fans) and are also generally respectful to opposing fans but not players. Giants as a team are similar to the cards, and their fans are too, as similar as San Franciscans can possibly be to St. Louisans. They have an element of loyalists but the Cali fickleness rears its head every other year when they miss the playoffs. When they dont, they win the world series and suddenly everyone famous in Cali shows up in a Giants cap. Sucks for the true fans, since those d-bags drive up the cost and whatnot for tickets, so true giants fans cant fill the seats. Same goes for the Dodgers about the playoffs, only the regular season exhibits a rare phenomenon–they will sell out the whole stadium, yet only 25k people show up. Why aren’t teams from all sports flocking to LA? Because the fan base sucks. In STL we have a small amount of people who live off the cardinals in the summer. In LA, half the crowd is rich pricks who bought the tickets in case they couldn’t get squeezed into the hottest sushi bar that night. KC is possibly the most hypocritical baseball town in the US, even worse than LA. They are a pure football town, and rival Seattle (who’s fans also don’t show up in down years) for the best fans in football. I say this because they show up en mass to tailgate and watch the game regardless of the record or playoff implications. Meanwhile, it took the Royals’ wildcard bid to draw more than 3/4 capacity at a baseball game which literally abuts Arrowhead. I followed the Royals more closely than 95% of their fans in the last month of the year because nobody there cares about football once NFL training camp starts. Different towns have different priorities. Cincinnati is another great baseball town that draws fans every year regardless of mediocrity, but they have been overshadowed by pittsburgh lately since clint hurdle has turned them into a contender. Three years ago pittsburgh couldnt pay people to show up. at the same time, their football team packs the house every game of every year. Boston might be the only town that packs the house for all its major sports teams, but they are all assholes so nobody wants to give them credit. Boston fans are also disrespectful to cards, even tho we broke the babe’s curse for them…thats almost sacreligious.

Say what you want about the Cardinals and their fans. But go to St. Louis to watch a game and you’ll understand. Players and media outlets across the country agree that St. Louis is a special baseball city, and the title of “Best Fans in Baseball” was, contrary to popular belief, not self-proclaimed. It was given to us by various polls and opinions of players and media that have seen games in pretty much every ball park. Everything is different there. It’s the only place where you’ll get to meet TRUE Cardinals fans, not the ones that give us a bad rep on the street. Most fans that make the Cards fans “insufferable” are the same ones that you’ll find in ANY stadium…the ones that can’t name three players in the lineup and only cheer for them because it’s the popular thing to do. So TL;DR: I encourage you to go to a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium before you hate too much. Your mindset will quickly be changed.

I find this interesting. I just recently read an article from Forbes t g at the Cardinals have the best fans in baseball. They used attendance figures, merchandise sales, tv ratings and reached out on social media. Just thought the contrasting articles were entertaining.

This is really simple. The reason the cardinal fans are the most annoying fans is because they are so oblivious that they are annoying to everyone who is not a cardinals fan. Seriously- all fans cheer for other team’s players when they do something amazing. Cardinal fans don’t own that. Being “nice” doesn’t make you special, but you thinking it does, DOES make you annoying. You’re not great, you’re not better than any of us- you’re just a freaking fan base stuck in a city with nothing else to get excited about than your stupid baseball team. There. I said it. By all means though Cards fan, please continue to argue about how nice you all are- cause that’s not annoying at all.

Yes, and then try wearing a Cardinals hat to a game at Wrigley Field (which I have done many times in my youth, having to put up with insults and even food thrown at me). I was even told to “Take that f**cking Cardinals hat off” by Bill Murray while photographing a Chargers-Bears game in San Diego.

Cardinals fans will clear the stadium if they were ever to go on a losing streak. Where teams like the Cubs have sold out games almost every game and they haven’t won in a very long time… I’d also like to point out that the new Busch stadium shows alotbof traits from wrigley. Fences brought in, opened up the stadium and attempted to grow ivy on the walls but they just couldn’t figure that out